Francis Sunday (1741 - 1830)

Born 27 Feb 1741 in Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Sunday — married about 1822 in United States

Descendants

Died 1830 at about age 88 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States

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Biography

It was at the turn of the 19th century that Dr. Francis Sunday, his wife Ann and son John1 emigrated to the United States from Western Europe. Unlike most immigrants of the time who settled in Philadelphia or New York, this family’s destination was Georgia, most likely entering the state through Charleston, or Savannah.2 Dr. Sunday, a native of France, settled in the Milledgeville-Augusta, Georgia as early as 1814;3 the presence of his son John is documented in nearby Baldwin County in 1809 where he married Barsheba Collins.4 It was John, Barsheba, their children, and the descendants of John and the slave “Jinny” who established the Sunday Family in Escambia County, Florida. With the onslaught of the Jim Crow laws, the "black" Sundays of Pensacola were no longer able to claim the then desirable "Creole" designation,5 and family members split along color lines with the lighter-skinned cousins moving away from the area. Hence, the progeny of Harrison Sunday, John and Jinny's oldest hazel-eyed son, who was considered "mulatto", are Caucasian, while the descendants of his sister and brother who remained in the Pensacola area are African-American.

Dr. Francis Sunday, established an active medical practice6 during his first years in America, seeing patients in his hometown and at least thirty miles distant; but by early 1817 his focus shifted to the sale of various medicines for “diseases generally, and particularly those to which the Sex is liable.” His advertisements ran for two years7 in the Augusta Chronicle, and the Charleston Courier, claiming his age as the impetus for the change in concentration. More likely, it was his wife Ann’s “lingering illness”8 and the care she required that interfered with his regular practice, as his advertisements ceased just before the time of her death. Her illness must also have prompted Francis to seek spiritual solace, for in the year before she died he was baptized into the “The Baptist Church of Christ.” What faith he and Ann may have practiced prior to this time is not known, but there were well-established Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations in Augusta at the time he was baptized. 9

Like many medical advertisements of the time, Dr. Sunday’s provide for interesting reading with lengthy descriptions of the “healing tonics” to be sold: “Antiputred, Or Fever-Water,” female tincture for the treatment of a “variety of complaints, proceeding generally from those dangerous obstructions peculiar to the sex,” and “Pulmonic Electuary, for colds, coughs, asthmas, all pulmonic diseases, and for preventing consumption.” Clearly sensitive to medical hucksterism, Dr. Sunday’s advertisements also cited his 40 years of experience “in France, Holland and this country” as the basis for the “superior efficacy” of his products,” but cautioned that “It is not pretended that either one of those medicines singly possesses the wonderful virtue of curing all evils.”

Dr. Sunday and his wife Ann can next be found in the 1820 US Census living in Richmond County, Georgia: the household includes two foreigners, not naturalized, and one female slave between the ages of 26 and 44. 10 Ann Sunday was not to live long after that date: the Augusta Herald reports that she had been suffering for fourteen years “with uncommon Christian fortitude” when she died in July of 1821 at age 62.11 She was buried in Augusta’s Magnolia Cemetery.12

In the following year Francis sold his property on Broad Street in Augusta,13 including “several buildings, tenements, houses, out-houses and their appurtenances” to one Sarah Jones, the widow of Noble Jones. The property was located near the Savannah River and is likely the place where he practiced medicine and lived.14 It must have been shortly after this time that Dr. Sunday abandoned Georgia for a new home in nearby Edgefield, South Carolina where his name appears as a witness on several court records and as a property holder. Eventually, he married Mary King,15 the wealthy widow of Henry King. Francis is not heard of again after 1829.

Since the time I published this article, the probate record for Francis Sunday was located in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Francis died in an impoverished state, leaving behind medical supplies that clearly indicate that this is the same Dr Francis Sunday who practiced in Georgia. In reading court documents in Edgefield, SC, there was a question as to where he was living after abandoning the home of Mary King. One witness said he had heard that Sunday was in New Orleans; another that he was deceased.

Name: Francis Sunday. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [2]}

Born Speculative, based on naturalization papers filed in Georgia in which he forgoes allegiance to the King of France. France

Died Supported by testimony of former wife Mary King to SC court./Alabama. 4 NOV 1832. Louisiana, USA. Map: Latitude: N31. Longitude: W91.5. ^[4]

Probate: 18 JAN 1833. Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Map: Latitude: N30.0658. Longitude: W89.9313. ^[4]

Residence 1820 Richmond, Georgia, USA. ^[1]

US Passport Issuede US prior to this date. 21 OCT 1811. ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Source: #S65 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Richmond, Georgia; Page: 227; NARA Roll: M33_7; Image: 220
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Source: #S349
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Source: #S350 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Registers and Indexes for Passport Applications, 1810-1906; Roll #: 1; Volume #: Roll 1 - Register of Passport Applications, 21 Dec 1810-07 Oct 1817
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Source: #S351 Louisiana, Orleans Parish Estate Files; Author: Louisiana. Probate Court (Orleans Parish); Probate Place: Orleans, Louisiana

• https://sites.google.com/site/cward71360/the-story-for-publication-by-sheila-moore
• https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7734
• https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7486

1 Documentation of this father-son relationship does not seem to exist within the United States, however, the likelihood of its existence is high: the two men certainly lived contemporaneously, in close proximity and were, based on census records, the only Sundays in Georgia at the time. Francis is known to have practiced medicine in Holland, and census records indicate that John was born in Amsterdam. Additionally, estimates of their ages are consistent with such a relationship. Finally, Pearl Perkins of Pensacola, Florida, a descendant of John Sunday’s youngest child, John Sunday, Jr. verified the relationship. Sunday, Jr. who died in 1925 cared for his grandchildren in his later years, one of whom was Pearl Perkins’ grandmother. It was to her that the family stories were passed, and then to her children. Additional references to communications with Pearl Perkins are handed down from this same source.

2 As of this date the Sundays have yet to be found in any ship passenger lists, so the time and place of entry into the United States is unknown.

3 A June 25, 1819 entry in the Richmond County Minute Book 11, page 88 describes Francis Sunday’s intent to become a citizen, renouncing allegiance to all other foreign powers, “and particularly to the King of France to whom he has heretofore been and now is a subject.” Such an oath, according to the Naturalization Act of 1795, was a final step to citizenship for an individual who was known to have been resident in the U.S. for at least five years.

4 Baldwin County Georgia, Marriage Records, January 14, 1809.

5Susan E. Dollar, Black, White, Or Indifferent: Race, Identity, and Americanization in Creole Louisiana, (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2004), refers to the Creole’s loss of status between reconstruction and the early part of the twentieth century “when the one-drop guide to racial identity pronounced them ‘Negro,’ and they disappeared in a racial system that allowed for no ‘in-betweens’” and to the “rise of Jim Crow, when American laws and language forced the Creoles... to ‘pass for black.’”

6 Richmond County Tax Digests list Francis Sunday’s occupation as “professional” and assess him $4.31 1/4 in taxes for each year from 1818 through 1820, inclusive.

7 Twelve advertisements appear in the Augusta Chronicle between August 18, 1819 and November 1, 1819; the Charleston Courier carried 24 between March 20, 1820 and November 29, 1820.

8 Augusta Herald, July 17, 1821, Page 3, Column 3

9 Isabella S. Jordan, “A Century of Service: First Baptist Church, Augusta Georgia,” 1921, Pages 9 – 12.

10 1820 U S Census, Richmond, Georgia, Page: 227, NARA Roll: M33_7, Image: 220.

11 Augusta Herald, July 17, 1821, Page 3, Column 3

12 Augusta Georgia, Magnolia Cemetery, Sexton’s Card ID A-16.

13 Augusta-Richmond Court Records, Book S, pages 12 – 13.

14 His address appears in previously cited newspaper advertisements as "near Cotton Range. In this context a “range” describes a long row of buildings. According to Erick D. Montgomery, Executive Director of Historic Augusta, Inc., “Cotton Range” was probably near a wharf from which cotton was shipped in the 1820s. (Personal communication via e-mail, June 2011.)

15Multiple court records exist in Edgefield County, South Carolina documenting a relationship between Francis Sunday and Mary King, he serving as witness to several of her transactions. Other records describe property that is bounded by that of Dr. Sunday. The last record placing Francis in Edgefield also documents the marriage of him and Mary: Justice Jesse Blocker “certified dower release by Mary Sunday wife of Francis Sunday” on February 7, 1829”

• Source: S349 Ancestry.com Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2011;

• Source: S350 Ancestry.com U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2007;

• Source: S351 Ancestry.com Louisiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2015;

• Source: S65 Ancestry.com 1820 USA Federal Census Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2010;